Rachel Roth, Spring 2009 Staff Writer
At a Pierce College Academic Senate meeting yesterday afternoon, Pierce President Robert Garber announced proposed budget cuts which will mean a loss of approximately $2.5 million from Pierce’s current budget.
According to Garber, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal is to cut $2.5 billion from the funds from Proposition 98, which guarantees a minimum amount of funding for K-12 schools and community colleges.
According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, Proposition 98, which passed in 1988, gives education at least 40 percent of the state budget. The exact portion depends on the state’s fiscal condition each year. The funding formulas from Prop 98 ensure that each year, education gets more than it did the prior year.
If Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal goes through, it will mean a $250-million to $334-million cut for community colleges throughout the state, with 10 percent of those cuts impacting the Los Angeles Community College District and “a little over $2.5 million” cut from Pierce’s budget for the year.
Higher unit fees
Garber also said the LAO has proposed a plan that would only cut $1 billion from community college budgets this year, but would require a $6-per-unit enrollment increase. The rise in tuition would be effective for the Spring 2009 semester.
“Any time we’ve ever had enrollment fee increases when the semester is already under way it is very difficult to get the money,” Garber said.
Academic Senate President Tom Rosdahl expressed concern that due to budget cuts – and because Pierce is “in the black” – the college’s extra funds would be raided to aid colleges that are in debt.
Senator Gail Hobbs echoed that concern. Hobbs said that years ago, under a different administration, Pierce had been a “money tree from which they came and picked.”
“Remind them that years and years and years ago, when Pierce was booming, we were in the black and they kept cannibalizing,” she said. “Later on, when demographics changed and our pull was not as big and things went down, we were told to live within our means.”
Garber admitted “there was always a chance” Pierce’s surplus money could be used to bail out other schools, but he feels confident LACCD Chancellor Marshall Drummond is not going to “go after” the extra funds both Pierce and East Los Angeles College have.
10,000 fewer spots in CSU system
Elizabeth Atondo, Transfer Center director, said the California State University Chancellor’s Office announced there will be 10,000 fewer spots for students this fall. She urged professors to tell their students to get their CSU applications in by the Nov. 30 deadline to guarantee admission.
“CSU campuses have been given a finite number of students that they can admit. Once they hit that number they have to close,” Atondo said.